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MEREDITH & MULLIGAN;

Carriage-Body.

Patented Sept. 10, v1867.

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gaiteh tetra gaunt @111 SAMUEL W. MEREDITHAND DAVID MULLIGAN, OFGREENSBURG, INDIAN Letters Patent No. 68,772, dated September 10, I867.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that we, SAMUEL W. MEREDITH and DAVID MULLIGAN, of Grcensburg, in the county of Decatur, and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Farm-I'Vagon Beds; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference bcing had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view.

Figure 2, a side elevation, showingin red lines the changes in the position of parts. Figure 3 is a plan; the sides represented as folded'down. The same letters are employed in all the figures in the indication of identicalparts.

Our improvements relate to the mode of constructing and attaching an adjustable tail-piece to the beds of wagons, and their extent will be set forth in the claims hereinafter to bemadc.

The object of these improvements is to form such an extension to wagon-beds that articles carried in the bed may be more conveniently shovelled from thence without bcingcxposcd to falling upon theground upon removing the tailboard, as is the case in ordinary wagon-beds. p

In the drawings, A is a wagon-bed of ordinary construction, the rear end being closed by the tail-board B, the bed extending a little distance beyond the tail-board. To the end of the bottom of the bed thus extended we hinge the tail-piece C' by hinges C, so that it may be either extended horizontally, as shown in figs. 1 and p 3, or fixed vertically, as shown by the dark lines in fig. 2. On the sides the side pieces D D are hinged to the tail-piece C in such mannerthat' when turned down the tail-piece may be folded up, the side pieces passing between the side boards of the bed A, or when the tail-piece C is turned down they may he turned up, forming an extension of the side boards of the bed to the end of the folding tail-piece. The segments E are attached to irons E on the back of the tail-piece, and pass through staples F on the wagon-bed, which permit the tail-piece to be folded up ordown, the latter-being supported by the segments, which bear against the staples F, by meansof hooks or enlargements E upon thc'ends of the segments, which will not pass through the staples. When the sidcpieces are folded-up they may be secured by buttons, H, which catch against the sides of the bed. I I are springs on the top of the bed, extending beyond the bed, and terminating with hooked catches which permit the tail-piece to be folded against the end of the bed, and which, catching over the irons E, hold it in a vertical position. The wagon being arranged, as shown in dark lines in fig. 2,the tail-piece is first turned down, as t l 7 shown in then-ed lines in figs. 2 and 3, and then thcside pieces turned up and fastened, as shown in fig. 1. i The tail-board B may then be removed, and the contents of the bed piled against the same will fall upon the tail-board, whence they may be easily shovlled.

forth, for we are aware that detachable extensions have been used; but what we do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In combination with a wagon-bed, A, a folding tail-piece, C, permanently attached thereto by hinges C, and the side boards D hinged to the tail-piece C, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

ment E and staples F, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The combination and arrangement of the taihpiece with hinged sides, the wagon-bed, and the spring catches I, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification .in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SAMUEL W. MEREDITH, DAVID MULLIGAN.

Witnesses GHEsLnY Lawson, G. B. RosznLL.

Whatwe claim as our invention is not broadly an adjustable extension of a-wagon-bed for the purpose set 2. The combination and arrangement of the bed A, hinged tail-piece G, with sides Dhingcd thereto, seg- 

